Dre Shaw’s enduring journey to OSU

During the opening weekend of Pac-12 play, the Oregon State University volleyball team was on the verge of a 2-0 start in conference play and an eight-game winning streak.

But midway through the third set of a 1-1 match against the University of Arizona, senior outside hitter Dre Shaw went up for a block on Arizona's Cursty Jackson and came down twisting her right ankle; the Beavers went on to lose the match in four sets.

Shaw missed the next four matches with a high ankle sprain.

A bumpy road through her senior season is nothing new for Shaw.

"A lot of things have happened to me in my college career, so I wasn't emotionally hit by a truck, but it did bring me down a little bit," Shaw said.

Journey to Oregon State

Shaw has endured a journey of peaks and valleys since graduating from Kamehameha-Maui High School, where she lost one game in four years and was twice named as an All-Maui Interscholastic League first-team selection and also was recognized as Player of the Year twice.

"Volleyball is very competitive in Hawaii. Our goal was to destroy every team," Shaw said. "Here (the continental states) looking at it, people would think it's lazy volleyball, but I grew up playing smart volleyball. It wasn't so much about physicality, it was just playing smart, taking shots; that's Hawaiian volleyball."

After her successful high school career, Shaw was faced with a complicated decision — to stay with her tight-knit family in Hawaii, or pursue a volleyball scholarship in the Continental United States.

"At first, I wasn't really confident about going to college and I had a lot of offers that I let pass me by," Shaw said.

She ended up making a last-minute decision to accept a scholarship offer at Western New Mexico University, as they were the only school that would accept her late since she missed signing day.

Accepting the scholarship offer and attending college had an added component for Shaw, as she is the first one from her family to attend college.

"Personally it means the world," Shaw said. "My family and I are very close. What I'm doing, I hope sets the example for my younger cousins."

After arriving at WNMU, Shaw's confidence grew exponentially.

"I reached there and I knew I could do better," Shaw said. "I told myself ‘I got a scholarship, I flew all the way from Maui to here by myself and I can do more.'"

Being able to do more for Shaw meant playing in the best volleyball conference in the nation, the Pac-10.

"I tried to do the research to get here as soon as I could but I caught a glitch," Shaw said.

She was attending a Division-I program at WNMU, where she excelled on the court, earning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and a Third Team All-Conference selection.

As Shaw expressed her desires to transfer after her freshmen season, she received little help from the WNMU staff and advisors.

Shaw found herself in a difficult situation with few people to trust.

"I trusted the first person that told me they could help. They told me I would need to go to a community college to transfer into the Pac-10," Shaw said.

However, the advice she received was misguided because she could have opted to transfer from one four-year university to another four-year university while having to sit out a year. Nonetheless, Shaw enjoyed her community college experience.

"When I got here (OSU) I found out that I could have transferred from a four-year university straight to a four-year university and sit out a year. But Arizona, I learned so much there, I would not even take that back," Shaw said.

She transferred to Eastern Arizona Community College, where she earned National Junior College Athletic Association First-Team All-America honors and Arizona Community College Athletic Association Player of the Year while leading her team to the ACCAC Region I championship.

"It was an amazing feeling; winning is the best feeling ever," Shaw said.

Beaver years

Shaw had finally reached her goal to play in the best volleyball conference in the nation when she signed with the Beavers.  But she was held out the first 10 games of the 2010 season due to ineligibility.

"She is a really positive kid, a really good teammate. We saw that right away and we felt that we needed that in our program. When she's on and healthy she is as good as they come," said Oregon State head coach Terry Liskevych.

Shaw finally began her career as a Beaver against the University of Nevada, where she totaled six kills on 11 errorless swings.

"After I came here, I got to play in every division and conference.  I experienced everything, like what five girls experience, because I've played at every level.  It's kind of cool," Shaw said.

Shaw is the lone senior for the Beavers and has been thrust into a leadership role on a team packed with underclassmen.

"We see that every day.  We see as a leader she is modeling that on the court, in the locker room. Great personality in getting along with everybody," Liskevych said.

Shaw's offseason preparation is as important as any aspect in being a leader on such a young team.